The larvae probably develop in roots and stems of Leontodon autumnalis and Crepis species.
The name of the town is the Hebrew translation of the Hawksbeard flower which is widespread in the area's sand dunes in spring.
In Crepis and some other herbaceous perennial species, a polyploid complex may arise where there are at least 2 genetically isolated diploid populations, in addition to auto- and allopolyploid derivatives that coexist and interbreed (hybridise).
For example, the weed Crepis Sancta, found in France, has two types of seed, heavy and fluffy.
This has been noted as a rare phenomenon in many plants (e.g. Nicotiana and Crepis), and occurs as the regular reproductive method in the Saharan Cypress, Cupressus dupreziana.
It is the most southerly known locality in Britain for Marsh Hawk’s-beard (Crepis paludosa).
In 1927-1928, Clausen received a Rockefeller scholarship to study at the University of California, Berkeley where he worked on the genetics of the genus Crepis with E. B. Babcock.
The polyploid complex was first described by E. B. Babcock and G. Ledyard Stebbins in their 1938 monograph The American Species of Crepis: their interrelationships and distribution as affected by polyploidy and apomixis.